Led by the evergreen Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, the Miami Heat basketball team achieved a fantastic turnaround in the derby of the Eastern Conference against the Indiana Pacers at American Airline Arena and won a great 103-100 overtime victory. Miami Heat caught up 18 points before reaching the victory after the end of the regular time.
There was a 26-minute delay of the game because of a lightning problem. Indiana were 29-19 ahead after the end of the first quarter. Then Bosh reduced the gap to 3 points just 10 seconds before the half time (47-44). In the third and fourth quarter of the game Bosh and Wade showed one of their best performances and sent the game into overtime.
Wade and Bosh finished with a total of 58 points, 19 rebounds and 4 assists, as helped their teammates to record the 21th victory since the start of the regular season. Wade scored 27 points and collected eight rebounds, while Bosh finished with a ‘double-double’ of 31 points and 11 rebounds.
Wade’s two-pointer basket sent the meeting into the extra time and Miami Heat deservedly reached the final success after showing great motivation in the very last minutes of the game. 3.9 seconds before the final siren Paul George of Indiana could have levelled the score, but he missed from the 3-points zone.
After the game, Wade said he was feeling like in a playoff game, and Paul George said that his shooting was not good enough and he was required to score and equalise.
‘At that time, it’s me, or Goran Dragic, whoever is running the pick-and-roll. Chris is a great target to have. I told everybody that I was going to the basket. If (Pacers defenders) were going to collapse, I would have kicked it for a 3-pointer. But I had a lane, and I didn’t want to settle for a jump shot,’ added Wade.
Namely Paul George was the best for the visitors from Indianapolis with 32 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals. Monta Ellis scored 17 points and recorded 9 assists. Ian Mahinmi added 13 points and nine rebounds. Pacers were without their main guard George Hill, who missed the game due to food poisoning.
‘You have to honour Bosh,’ Indiana coach Frank Vogel said. ‘They got a good screen, and we gave Wade too much of an angle to turn the corner.’
